How Young Vegan Influencer Responds to COVID 19

Date: 15 Apr 2020

By: Kashawn Milligan

Comment: Comments are off

Savannah Villanueva

Savannah is a vegan influencer and mental health activist in San Antonio. She utilizes her instagram page, @puroveggies, as a platform to share easy plant based recipes for families to try at home, how a vegan diet has transformed her health, and discusses her life and relationship with her autistic brother. She aspires to be a physician and to keep raising awareness of the importance of mental health in my minority families. Here is Savannah’s post:

The coronavirus has drastically changed how we live our everyday lives. Schools are closed, many people have lost their jobs, local businesses are suffering more than ever, and non-essential businesses have been shut down. We are learning how to make the most out of limited resources and what we can do in our homes. However, this change is not easy for everyone to adjust to due to some not having the privilege of a safe home environment, mental health issues, and lack of outlets. In every home COVID19 has affected it differently and in this paper, I will tell you how it has affected mine. Social distancing has made our youth realize that we are all selfish. Days leading up to quarantine, the media gave many warnings to not go anywhere unless necessary and large social gatherings would accelerate the spread of the virus. We all took the warnings into consideration but whom are we kidding, it wasn’t enough. We felt like we were exempt from COVID19, because we are young with a strong immune system. Therefore, our daily schedules shouldn’t be adjusted, we can continue life as normal and only those who are older and already have other illnesses should be more cautious. However, it was not that simple. At some point, we realized that we are selfish and socializing is not worth it. Our daily lives involve our family. Yes, we may have a better chance at fighting the corona virus but our parents and grandparents do not. Our social desires are not worth harming others, contributing to the load of patients of overworked health professionals, and slowing down our nation’s goal to contain this virus. On March 16th, new guidelines reduce the spread of COVID19. This resulted in closing schools, restaurants, bars, and social gatherings of more than groups of 10 people. With this big change, it seemed like the world stopped. I was stifled at my desk hearing co workers worry about who’s going to watch their kids at home and how they will successfully help them with online school balancing their full time jobs. I’ve never felt so lost telling someone it’s going to be okay because in reality, none of us knew if things were going to be okay.

On March 20th, my job let over 50 employees go. The truth is, I didn’t think I was exempt from the economic downfall from COVID19. I thought since I do benefits for upcoming appointments for our practice, hopefully I am on the essential side. Turns out, I was completely wrong. I was safe from the initial cuts on March 20th, but the rest of us that were remaining were furloughed on March 24th. I was overwhelmed on how to financially survive during this tough time but my anxiety shot through the roof when I thought about my side job, my vegan blog. How will people listen to me about health when there are people dying everyday from COVID19? Will I lose my audience that I worked so hard to get? How can I pretend to be positive when I feel terrible inside too? Spending more time at home has made me grateful for what I do have. I’ve learned that as long as I see my younger autistic brother smile, my heart is content. On my vegan blog, I’ve strengthened my creative skills and made it a resource for people to escape during this time. I try as much as I can to communicate with my audience and I pray for everyone to keep pushing through until this is all over in hopes that we come out stronger. It breaks my heart seeing everyone scramble, short of income and resources during this time. I can only imagine what life is like for those who are trapped in an abusive environment. I’m pushing my followers to check on their family and friends. Suicide rates have gone up since this has all happened and we do not know what goes on behind closed doors. We cannot physically be there for each other but we can still call/text, FaceTime, and share funny memes. Any type of communication helps to just let the people you love know that they aren’t alone.

Beyond The Stage is important to the youth in San Antonio, to keep striving towards their goals. More than anything, our youth needs to be inspired and Beyond The Stage provides them that extra push to become our next leaders.